"They are hot. They are healthy. They are rolling. They're all that and then some," writes Bernardo Fallas after watching the Houston Dynamo crush injury-hit Chivas USA with four first-half goals. Recent signing Kei Kamara scored twice "in what turned out to be a 4-0 rout of a Chivas USA team so depleted it could have used a mercy rule if such a thing existed in soccer."

The win moved Houston five points clear at the top of the Western Conference, and Coach Dominic Kinnear said "there is not much more we could have asked for tonight." The team barely missed goalkeeper Pat Onstad and "offensive staples" Dwayne De Rosario and Brian Ching, all away on international duty.

"I was going into the game with an excitement, knowing that I would get my chance," Kamara said. "I was nervous and scared. I was like, 'I don't want to be one of the guys who starts and then not get a win.'?It feels good. I wish I would have had three. I was sitting behind the defense, and great balls were played [to me]."

Richard Mulrooney, assisting on both Kamara goals after returning to the Dynamo defense following knee surgery, said: "Last time I was playing, Nate [Jaqua] wasn't here yet, Kei wasn't here yet, and we were sort of being an average team. And we all know we're an above-average team. Add those two guys to the mix, and the sky is the limit."